History of Vontimitta Temple
The idol here was believed to have been installed by Jambavantha, the bear king who helped Lord Rama in his mission to Lanka. According to Legend, Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita spent some time here in the forest during the period of their exile. Once to quench the thirst Sita, Rama shot an arrow deep into the earth, upon which sweet water gushed out. Later, with this perennial water spring, two small tanks named Rama theertham and Lakshmana theertham. The artifacts of the temple evidenced the Vijayanagara period. According to the artifacts, a king known as kampana came to this village with his army and drank the water of Ramagundam or Ramatirtham and built a garbhagriha for the God Kodandarama, and also dug a big tank to the south of this temple.
In Treta yuga when Brahmarshi Viswamitra wanted to perform a yajna(ritual sacrifice), he requested Lord Rama
and his brother Lakshman to protect that from the evil forces by that time both
Rama and Lakshman were kids, and this led to the killing of evil force named
Thataki. The place derived the name of Vontimitta after two local hunters
Vontadu and Mittadu, who were said to have quenched the thirst of King
Kamparayalu when his entourage visited the place. On their request, the king
constructed this temple and named the place ‘Vontimitta’, but King
Bukkarayalu opened the temple in 1356 A.D. In the 16th Century, the Vijayanagara
rulers constructed the Antaralayam, Rangamantapam, Mahapranganam, Gopuram, and
Ratham in a phased manner and developed the temple. The Kainkaryams were
introduced with voluntary contributions from villagers. This temple was
built by King Kamparayalu and Cholas.
We can see the contributions of
the Vijayanagara kings. Vavilikolanu Subba Rao was a poet and great devotee of
Rama of Vontimitta, he was popularly known as 'Andhra Valmiki. He lived in
Vontimitta and translated 'Ramayana' into Telugu. He also wrote a commentary on
Ramayanam, known by the name of 'Mandaaram'. He used to beg money from the
villagers for meeting the expenses for the development of the temple. He spent
money for making a gold cover for the main deity (Moola Virat). This place is
associated with great scholars and bhaktas like Bammera Pothana, Tallapaka
Annamacharya, Ayyalaraju Tripurantaka, and Ayyalaraju Ramabhadra. Bammera
Pothana who wrote Bhagavatham dedicated to Lord Sri Rama here.
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